Illyasviel von Einzbern’s life has become ridiculously complicated since the Kaleidostick Ruby convinced her to become a magical girl and join the quest for collecting the seven Class Cards. Since then, almost every day has brought a new surprise, from gaining new friends and partners like Miyu Edelfelt, to encountering her own magical twin!

One would think Illya deserves a little time off, right? No such luck: a trip to the beach quickly turns into a magical quest, and Illya finds herself caught in a string of magical feuds, encounters with love potions, an excursion into the world of “boys love” comics (plus the women who read them), and half a dozen other delirious diversions.

However, that is only the warm-up for what might be her final mission: recovering the long-lost Eighth Card! It’s a mystical whirlwind of unexpected escapades and surprising new revelations as Illya’s saga continues in Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2Wei Herz!: Complete Collection!

Commentary:

Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2Wei Herz!: Complete Collection picks up right where Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2Wei left off and turns into a slice of life series for the first six episodes. During those six episodes everything seemed to drag, as nothing seemed to contribute to the plot of being a magical girl. There was not even one fight, or transformation scene. It took some time, but after finishing the series, I understand why they did that and it makes sense, however at the same time I wish they could have staged it out a little more. One thing they did well during that time was to advance the character development quite a bit, and also beyond Illya, Chloe(Kuro), and Miyu. They developed the characters of their group of friends, and the other normally background characters that are rarely seen more than one episode straight. Another thing that went way over the edge was the fan service. I like my fan service, but this got a little too unnatural and redundant after a while. I wish they would have toned down the fan service a bit. It started feeling forced and burdensome. Eventually, it added up and became too much and did take away from the story but the character development helped keep things moving along at a bearable pace.

Eventually after all the trips to the mall, the beach, the festival, the amusement park, and doing the all the summer homework (Basphamy!!!!) we finally are ready to be a magical girl again. As with all the other seasons the battle scenes continue to be very well done and exciting. As always its action packed and exciting. Even though the action was limited to the last four episodes, they did make up for the slowness of the first half. It even eventually explained, in a roundabout way, why they did it the way they did. By the end of last episode, everything is easily wrapped up tightly with a nice little bow. That is until the credits……..

Though this season was slow at first, the eventual payoff is well worth the investment of time. I normally am a fan of slice of life style animes, but for some reason this dragged to me at first. But once you get thru it and understand the reasons why, Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2Wei Herz!: Complete Collection is a must have continuation of this great series.

Extras:

Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2Wei Herz!: Complete Collection includes clean opening and closing animations Herz! Shorts, and Sentai Filmworks trailers as special features. This series was released with both English and Japanese with English subtitles as language options.

Overall Grade: B-

Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2Wei Herz!: Complete Collection is the perfect follow-up to the entire series. Just make sure you watch them in order so you can understand the entire story.

Synopsis:
The magical girls are back and are ready for a new adventure! However, with great powers come great responsibilities including cleaning up the aftermath of your previous adventures. Which means that, instead of getting a break after saving the world, newly changed magical girls Illya and Miyu have to help deal with the side-effects caused by the sealing of the Ley Cards.

Still, that shouldn’t be too hard, right? Wrong! Not only are the ley lines failing, but to make matters worse, Illya somehow ends up with a magical clone… and that sinister clone has plans of her own! Worse yet, since the “dark” version of herself is drawing its power from the same source as our heroine, Illya’s own powers are being reduced proportionately. These are definitely not the kind of problems that the average girl should have to deal with. It’s double the trouble as Illya’s split personalities face off and the personal conflicts get physical in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei! On Blu-ray

Commentary:Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei!, the second season of the magical girl spin off of the Fate multi-verse, follows the continuing adventures of Illya as a magical girl. If you have not watched the first season, I strongly suggest you do or you will have no idea what is going on. They provide a brief but lacking synopsis of the first season as it does little good to update you on events thus far. You will need an understanding of the first season to understand the story of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei!.

To be or not to be, that is the question. There are many other questions visited in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei! including: does one person have the right to turn back time when another person would cease to exist? When one person becomes two, does either really have a say in the other? It almost seems as if Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei!asks very difficult and philosophical questions in every episode. The characters are the same from the first season with the addition of Kuro as named by the group, or Chloe as named by herself. Kuro’s introduction to the series could be summed up with such difficult stances. The characters are well developed already coming into this season, but it hardly means they did nothing to build upon what you already thought you knew. They continue to build them up and even made previously unlikable people seem likeable. The second half gets less into the philosophical and more into the lengths people will go to protect what is important to them, even when there is nothing they can really do. The story itself was much deeper than you would expect, and in all truth it does not hit you right away how deep it gets, till you are longing for the 3rd season, which I hope Sentai Filmworks will get out sooner rather than later.

One thing that most series of this genre use is simple animation that will appeal to the younger of fans, but instead the animation was beautiful and the battle scenes, with seamless CG (not the CG that stands out like a sore thumb) and multi angle viewpoints were something to behold. There was fan-service but nothing distasteful or in excess. The voice actors brought the characters to life and made the series very enjoyable. The opening and closing songs were catchy and fun to listen to. I have always had a special place in my heart for magical girls, beginning in my early days of anime long ago. Even now I find myself very much still loving the genre. Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei!, the second season of the Fate/Type Moon magical girl spin off, has earned its place among my favorite titles.Extras:Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei!On Blu-ray includes 2wei! Shorts, TV Spots, Clean Opening and Closing Animations and Sentai Filmworks trailers as special features. This series was released with both English and Japanese with English subtitles as language options.

Overall Grade: A-
If you love the magical girl genre then I think you would thoroughly enjoy Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei.

Animeggroll : St Louis Anime Store

July 2017

Animeggroll has moved to Taubman Prestige Outlet, located at 17057 (space 152) North Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield, Mo 63005. Please note, our hours listed below and that we are closed on Mondays.

We are a St. Louis anime store, opening in October of 2010.

Regular Hours:
Monday Closed
Tue-Th 11-8
Fri 11-9
Sat 11-8
Sun 11-6

We carry a variety of Japanese Pop Culture Items. From anime (DVD, Blu-Ray, VHS, Laser Disc, new and used), then about 5,000 manga, add in Gundam models, wall scrolls, figures, Bento boxes and bento box supplies, plush, key chains, necklaces, buttons, pins, T-shirts, bags, Japanese erasers and more. For photos, look under the about us selection.

We carry new and used for a greater variety. We buy and trade. We are unable to take all items. Please call first to make sure we have someone to evaluate your items.